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The Cons are hypocrites about “supporting the troops”

Posted by Scott Tribe on November 23, 2007, at 9:29 am |

It appears our Conservative government has taken to heart another bit of strategy from its Republican mentors down south – demonize any criticism and critics of a war mission by questioning their patriotism and their loyalty towards the troops, but then do actions that show you’re doing nothing more then using the troops for your own partisan and political purposes:

The federal government is about to stop its practice of giving extra money to Canadian soldiers posted to some of the country’s most expensive cities. Since June 2000, almost half of Canada’s soldiers have been receiving a bump in their monthly salary – dubbed the post living differential – for living and working in cities with a high cost of living. However, Global National reported Thursday night that the Tory government will put a halt to the payments for soldiers in places like Toronto and Ottawa. More than 28,000 Canadian soldiers living in major urban centres currently qualify for the cost-of-living allowance.

The Con. government is hardly poor – it has an ‘unexpected surplus’ that it used to rip the Liberals all the time for – so it’s not like it needs to tighten it’s belt on this. Nor is the money saved going to amount to much in the overall budgetary scheme of things.

Actions speak louder then words, Cons, and your actions speak loudly in this case of being hypocrites on this file. I think everyone other then the Con parrots had figured this out, but this latest maneuver confirms that this screaming and yelling about “not supporting the troops” is nothing more then jingoism on the part of this Con. government. As Pogge says, I think the tables need to be turned here, and we should be asking (and the opposition parties in QP should be asking) Defence Minister Petey MaCkay why HE and his government doesn’t support our troops by retaining financial help to aid them with the cost of living in major urban centres.